In the old days, the Massachusetts prosecution usually had to prove merely that a book brought into question had been sold by a bookseller, & the Watch & Ward Society often succeeded in persuading such a seller to plead guilty on the understanding that he would get off with a light fine.
To avoid such a long sentence, Hammond pleaded guilty to one count of a conspiracy to violate the C.F.A.A., which carries a maximum of ten years, and he asked the court for lenience because he had used "his abilities to potentially unmask unlawful surveillance and intelligence-gathering efforts and seek out hidden truths".
That innocents faced with such a draconian choice often plead guilty is not surprising, but it is nonetheless disgraceful.
In France there's little legal nonsense such as pleading insanity for a man who has an exceptionally high I.Q., as Weidmann has.
Where else had I recently heard such special pleading from an industry which is often recklessly indifferent to the destructive consequences of its own behaviour?
With such a lobby against him he pleaded with Bombay Talkies for a job other than acting.
Facing a steep downturn in sales of regular advertising, commercial broadcasters like ITV have long pleaded for such a change.
To head off such a disaster, in 1989 Drexel pleaded no contest to six charges of stock manipulation.
"Because Alan Henning is not antagonistic towards Muslims, it is un-Islamic to kill such a person … Therefore I plead, I beg of you in the name of God to set this good Samaritan free".
"We've heard a lot of anecdotes about problems -- at such and such a time, some poor slob pleaded guilty and didn't talk to a lawyer for over 10 minutes," said Judge Walter J. Matthews of Rome, president of the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia.
See the investigative film produced by the Guardian here In a highly unusual move for a defendant in such a serious criminal prosecution, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges out of his own volition – not as part of a plea bargain with the prosecution.
